New York City will “coordinate” with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement on deporting migrant criminals, Mayor Eric Adams said this week as major cities brace for President Trump’s promised crackdown.
But whether City Hall’s collaboration with the feds will extend further remained unclear Wednesday.
The city is still analyzing the new Trump administration’s rule lifting a years-old ban on federal immigration raids in “sensitive areas,” namely churches and schools, Adams said.
“We’re still analyzing that executive order,” Adams said on GMGT Live’s “The Reset Talk Show” Wednesday morning.
The prospect of feds arresting and deporting people huddled inside Big Apple churches and schools didn’t come up during his face-to-face with Trump in Florida last week, the mayor said.
“We didn’t go into the details and the crevices of every policy that he’s going to put in place,” he said.
“We have been in constant communication with ICE. We met with them a little over a week ago, probably last week, to be exact, to hear what their policies may be,” he added.
Asked for more details about the meeting, Adams’ Deputy Press Secretary Liz Garcia said the mayor misspoke about his talks with ICE that he’d actually spoken to a Trump admin official handling border security, though she refused to disclose who.
Adams has remained vague on just how far the city’s cooperation with Trump’s mass deportations will go, even as he seeks to reassure immigrant New Yorkers fearful of being rounded up in indiscriminate raids.
The city’s stance, for now, appears to be to work with the Trump administration on shipping out accused criminal immigrants, while following local sanctuary laws that restrict city agencies from helping ICE and the feds in civil deportation proceedings.
Asked on Tuesday whether cops would work with the US Department of Homeland Security and ICE on deportations of people who are in the country illegally, Adams told reporters “There’s no restriction for the NYPD to coordinate with the various task forces around criminality.”
“Nothing has changed there. We’re going to continue to collaborate with all of our federal partners when it comes down to illegal behaviors,” he said during his weekly press briefing.
City Hall insiders told The Post Adams has been trying to avoid chaos in New York City — where 40% of residents are immigrants — and figure out what new Trump administration has in the works.
But sources said communication between the New York ICE office and City Hall has been non-existent.
Orders have yet to come down from Washington, DC, as to what will unfold from the new Trump administration, the sources said.
The first concrete signs came from Trump himself, as he signed a flurry of day-one executive orders from the White House focused on immigration — and paving the way for his promised mass deportations.
The orders signed Monday sought to eliminate Constitution-protected “birthright citizenship,” declared a national emergency at the US-Mexico border and cut off federal funds for sanctuary cities.
The directive lifting the ban on immigration enforcement in “sensitive areas” — which Adams incorrectly called an executive order — was issued Tuesday by Acting DHS Secretary Benjamine Huffman.
“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest,” a DHS spokesperson said.
“The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense.”
The policies signaled that Trump is ready to carry out a nationwide crackdown on illegal migrants — one that Rep. Nicole Malliotakis said soon will hit the Big Apple.
“Chicago is first, but New York will be right after that,” the Republican congresswoman, who reps Staten Island and Brooklyn, told NY1 this week.
Adams in recent months has taken an increasingly vocal stance against certain sanctuary city restrictions, particularly against accused violent criminals, who he said should be deported before trials.
He declared his intent to issue an executive order targeting violent migrants that would tweak sanctuary city policies restricting when the city can work with ICE — and reiterated his stance this week.
“Those who commit violent crimes in our city have violated their right to be in our city and in our country, and we’re going to continue to collaborate with ICE around criminality,” he said Tuesday.
City agencies, however, are already allowed to collaborate with ICE in 170 crimes, including by sharing information and assisting in investigations.
But behind-the-scenes, Adams’ administration has quietly been issuing guidance to city agencies warning staff not to cooperate with ICE under sanctuary city policies.
A recent NYPD internal memo obtained by The Post reminded cops that they can work with ICE on criminal investigations, but not on federal deportation proceedings, which are civil matters.
“To the extent federal immigration authorities are engaged in a civil enforcement operation and encounter individuals who are blocking or otherwise obstructing their activity, the federal authorities alone will take enforcement action consistent with their own rules and procedures,” the Jan. 18 memo to the NYPD states.
“Members of service will not assist with that enforcement action unless the individuals are engaged in conduct that, separate and apart from obstructing civil immigration enforcement, poses an immediate threat to public safety.”
Adams sought again during his weekly news conference Tuesday to reassure the city’s immigrants concerned about coming ICE raids.
“We want our immigrants to know that this is a city of immigrants,” he said.
“This is a country of immigrants. It’s imperative that you go to school, use the hospital service, use the police services.”
But when asked about raids in “sensitive areas” or migrant shelters, Adams both contended he already addressed the issue and offered that staying in touch with ICE would help, though he didn’t say in what way.
“Listen, we’ve been having good conversations with ICE,” he said.
“We’re going to continue to do so. Our team knows how important it is to coordinate. And if you’re not at the table, you’re not able to give real good input.”
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